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Keysight Technologies
B1505A Power Device
Analyzer/Curve Tracer
The all-in-one solution for power device
characterization from sub-pA to 1500 A/10 kV
Can your present equipment solve these key
power device evaluation challenges?

Insuficient measurement capability
Power devices require characterization across their entire operating region, which can range from
nanoamps or microvolts up to many amps and thousands of volts. Current requirements increase
each year as device technologies continue to improve. For example, characterization of present-
day LVMOSFETs requires 100 A, while IGBT modules can require over 1000 A. In addition, the
ability to perform narrow (microsecond range) pulsed IV measurements is also important to
prevent device self-heating that can distort measurement results. While some production power
device testers can cover wide current and voltage ranges, they are both user-unfriendly and
expensive. Custom-built solutions consisting of individual instruments are difficult and expensive
to support, and they often lack essential safety features. Lastly, characterizing the switching
speeds of power devices necessitates some means to characterize junction capacitances at
biases of several thousand volts. However, until now no measurement equipment existed that
could meet all of these requirements.
Quick and easy characterization with medium current at high voltage region
The characterization of high voltage devices near the safe operation area (SOA) is crucial to
guarantee their performance specifications. Dynamic testing is typically used for this since the
required static power is beyond the capabilities of conventional test equipment. Unfortunately,
dynamic test equipment is difficult to use and typically lacks sufficient accuracy. Alternative
schemes using multiple SMUs tied together can supply sufficient current, but their pulse widths
are too long to prevent device self-heating that causes unreliable measurement data.
Issues with novel new device (SiC, GaN, IGBT) characterization
New wide bandgap materials such as SiC and GaN show great promise for emerging high-power
applications because of their ability to withstand large voltages and their fast switching speeds.
IGBTs are becoming increasingly important as electronic switches for a variety of applications.
Characterization of large breakdown voltages (up to 10 kV), high currents (hundreds of amps),
junction capacitances under high voltage DC biases (up to 3000 V) device temperature depen-
dency, and the GaN device current collapse effect are measurement capabilities that are crucial
to bringing these new devices to market as quickly as possible.
No curve tracer hardware support or feature enhancements
Until recently, curve tracers have been the de facto standard tool for power device evaluation.
However, all major suppliers have stopped producing traditional analog curve tracers. As
existing curve tracers age, support and repair will continue to become increasingly difficult.
Moreover, conventional analog curve tracers do not possess the capabilities necessary to
evaluate modern power devices. They lack transfer curve characterization capability, they cannot
generate sufficiently short pulse widths and they do not possess sufficient accuracy. Extracting
PC-compatible data from curve tracers is also inconvenient and time consuming.
Safe and eficient packaged device testing
A test fixture that is both safe and easy to use is very important for packaged power device
evaluation. However, the lack of a standard test fixture for high-power devices has forced many
people to create their own solutions, which become difficult to manage when multiple package
types need to be tested. Moreover, additional factors such as safety and measurement perfor-
mance are often not properly taken into account. All of these issues tend to make user-created
test fixtures inefficient, expensive and potentially dangerous.

Power device development costs
The ability to probe devices on-wafer greatly saves both time and money by eliminating the
need to package the devices beforehand. However, on-wafer power device measurements
have previously not been easy to make. Not only the time and cost of supporting the on-wafer
measurement environment but also the safety of the on-wafer measurement environment are big
concerns.

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The Keysight B1505A meets the most challenging
power device evaluation requirements


A one box solution for accurate
and easy power device
evaluation and analysis
The B1505A meets the measurement
challenges posed by state-of-the-art
power devices. It is the only single-box
solution that can accurately evaluate and
characterize power devices from sub-
picoamps up to 10 kV and 1500 amps.
Moreover, it can also measure capacitance
at 3000 V of DC bias.

A built-in curve tracer mode provides
traditional and familiar curve tracer
functionality, permitting quick device
characterization with minimal measurement
setup effort. An innovative automatic
recording feature prevents data loss even if
the device under test (DUT) is inadvertently
destroyed.
Keysight B1505A key feature summary
In addition to these impressive measurement
capabilities, the intuitive EasyEXPERT